ok I read EVERY reviews that was in English (also I read one in French) on metacritic, so far, 18 reviews, 80%, 3 mixed and 15 positive (more on the mixed one one later as I honestly did doubted a lot).
So, let's starts with the simple thing: almost EVERY reviewers agreed that the battles are improved a lot with Paper Mario. They mostly liked the trio attack and this is what caught my attention: the interactions with the paper enemies and paper mario. Tbh, you coudl argue the enemies in SS did that, the only problem is it wouldn't matter because of how the battles were pointless. So,. this game is kinda doing what SS should have had here.
Most agreed about the papercraft being fun, but there is THAT one French reviewer that I couldn't understand why, but he REALLY found the papercraft battles bland. Honestly, just the JP trailer showed me they are......again, better than I expected before. Also, one reviewer mentioned that a pokey exists in papercraft, again, this makes it better to me.
Now, I will say that about the humor, I will say most loved the game in the end and the humor was a very major factor. One reviewer mentioned a certain scene with a wiggler and got quite bold saying it was "arguably the best storytelling I’ve witnessed in the franchise to date".......tbh idk what he meant by it, but I guess it's positive.
Let's now get to what people felt mixed on or negative. The FIRST complain and that a big chunk of reviews said is a pace problem with the toad missions. They would apparently feel repetitive enough for the reviewers to get annoyed eventually which did lowered some scores. Going tbh, just by looking at the footage, I can't really blame them, it does look bland and a reviewer said once that you had to do like 3-4 in a rows. Some other reviewers did liked it because they were fun and diverse which seems to be what I am leaning to when I saw the footages, but I can't help but think that 100% this game by doing all of them can become annoying. At least it can't be as bad as the freaking mess that was these super flags in SS, litterally required a day of farming......
After it was the story. yes, it is the classic you expect from mario games and yes, it got hit quite hard on that as far as scores are concerned. The thing is most reviews who mentioned that con always said on a positive note that the dialogs and the interaction with Paper Mario were funny and silly which seems to make up for it.
Finally, this complain tbh, i expect most revies to bring it now because it is a very legit one, but the amibo uses is weird. You use the amibo to have cards on it and you use it to unlock a set or use its memory to get other cards, with you so far. What is weird is why do I have to use the amibo when USING the cards EVERY TIME in battle? Most complained that as a portable game, it feels weird to have to carry the amibo and constantly have it with you just to use the freaking card and tbh......I can't argue with that.
Then some reviews complained about other stuff that wasn't mentioned very much like the world design feeling that it was already done so it wouldn't feel original enough and that.......is my take honestly. I ddi mentioned I didn't liked the SS world canvas and even if it's for reusing assets, idc, even for m&l this is a downgrade tbh. Though, the reviews who mentions that mostly say that at least the blend between both artstyle makes it feel something else, which again, I would agree, but pls, just drop the SS canvas it's too generic.
Oh and one last thing a reviewer mentioned that i felt bringing up: the star points system for the cards is really similar to TTYD sp bar, except no stylish!
Now, i want to link the VERY far salty review because......it is honestly worth talking as i did saw much worse:
http://www.pocketgamer.co.uk/r/3DS/Mario+&+Luigi:+Paper+Jam/review.asp?c=68431
This is as we speak the most negative review you can find on metacritic with a whopping 6/10.
And I honestly disagreed with most of it, what killed me was when he mentioned that the missions and the cardboard didn't had their place in a trun based rpg.........WHAT?
And this is the same person who praised TTYD and superstar saga with its diversity and charm........while both of these games had OTHER stuff than battle......
I link this review because it makes me conscious on how weird the complains on this game have been tbh. The compalins I posted above that msot reviews agreed, THESE are legit as i can see why anyone woudl be annoyed, but I saw some that I just had to question if the person truly wanted to say he doesn't liked the game, or was tryign to prove it no matter what.
Maybe the SS hate wasn't understood accurately and turned into a let's not like anything about SS? Maybe people did expected TTYD because paper Mario was there and they hoped it woudl fix SS? (btw, to an extent, it did, but not in his series).
I'm serious, I can't get the current hate even though it's not as big as SS (but it coudl come close). It's as if it was anyway expected to do poorly while tbh, i had really a good feeling it woudl turn out like this and I still checked stuff which completely shifted my takes on the game event though my feeling was right.
So, my best recommendation is if you are on the edge to buy the game, do check the reviews and footages because they are much more representative that waht you should get tbh. A lot of these reviews (mostly the 7 to 9/10 one) felt mostly legit complains with positive points I already agreed with long ago.
Btw, would i recommend the game if what these reviews are saying are what will be mostly the general opinion?
For m&l, I could say yes as it does seem to improve on Dream team, the big question is for the paper mario side and that's a bit tough to answer.
For SS, I would never recommmend it if you never played a paper mario game before and I would have strongly advise to know what you are getting into before, but paper jam somehow......doesn't feel entirely like I would do that. If you didn't played a paper mario game, this is still not a paper Mario game mind you BUT the thing I realised is it could MAKE YOU WANT TO. The way Paper Mario is presented with the artstyle and interactions and everything feels much more invinting then.....honestly his series! Granted, I can't say that for the originality and world design, but jsut for the character itself and the way the humor seems to be presented, it does look appealing.
So, I could recommend if you never played a paper mario game......just keep in mind this isn't one.
What I think is the situation where i will REALLY recommend it is if you never played both series. This case, honestly, if you apply to this and feel curious about the game, then I would say to get it because so far, both series philosophies seems to be present.
So, that shoudl be it for my reviews takes, i will watch more stuff and I will start to post less on it because it's going to get more spoilery and I still preordered tha game so.....yeah....